That simple statement reveals a potentially powerful insight into the mystery of our times. If Nature indeed knows what she is doing, from that flows a deeper realization of the historical trajectory in which we find ourselves. Is it possible we are the culmination of a vast experiment of a vast intelligence we can barely fathom from our limited human intelligence? Is it possible that our very disconnection from “Nature” is actually Her intent?

It has often been postulated that humans are destroying our habitat because of our belief that we are separate from and superior to Nature. Yet we are in reality a part of Nature. We are not separate. May we not, then, be a part of Nature herself creating the Dream of the Planet? Is it possible that we are part of a great evolutionary process, in which the current state of planetary destruction is a necessary ingredient for a Great Transformation?

The term dissipative structure was coined by Russian-Belgian physical chemist Ilya Prigogine. Out of that postulation came his Theory of Dissipative Structures which states that when a system is ready to move to a higher frequency, it disintegrates into a chaotic state. Out of chaos comes a new order, an order that would not have been possible had the previous order not devolved into chaos. What looks like chaos at one level, looks like a birthing in the new dispensation.

One way of looking at this process is how a caterpillar voraciously devours everything in its path, until, sated, it stops eating and spins a cocoon. Inside the chrysalis, the body of the caterpillar turns to a mushy substance. Its cells disintegrate and new cells begin to grow, called imaginal cells. At first the imaginal cells are experienced as foreign and the old caterpillar cells try to destroy them, but eventually the caterpillar surrenders to the process and the imaginal cells begin to build a new creature which eventually emerges as a butterfly, an entirely new creature.

If the caterpillar cells had not dissipated into a chaotic mush, the imaginal cells could not have emerged out of chaos and the new creature could not have been born. Is it possible we are experiencing just this process on a world scale? Does Nature know what she is doing?

Richard Bach said, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.” - Perhaps Nature calls the end of the world as we know it, the birthing of a new world.

Melody Larson writes, “A caterpillar event occurs and we have the choice to view it from the caterpillar’s perspective (the limited view of the ego/personality) or from the Master’s perspective (the eternal view of the Soul.) From the Master’s perspective a disaster is not a disaster at all but the necessary and wonderful adventure into a bigger life - the butterfly life.”

Clearly, from our limited human perspective, we are witnessing the beginning of the death throes of industrial civilization. This is cataclysmic, beyond human ability to fully comprehend. What does this mean for our way of life? How will we survive? Will we survive? Maybe a better question is who will we be together in the face of this unprecedented challenge of our time? I doubt if we will emerge the same people we are now. Industrial man may not be able to survive in the new world. The Gene Keys states, “A new network of neuro-circuitry in the solar plexus is superseding the reptilian fear-based neuro-circuitry of the old brain.” If this is true, then we may be literally evolving a New Human Operating System.

“Between 2012 and 2027” says The Gene Keys, “a core awakening fractal of humanity will lay the foundations of a new world that will reshape this planet from the inside out.” It goes on to say, “After this awakening has occurred, one will no longer exist as an individual. Awareness will operate collectively.” This process is so far beyond our current collective awareness as to be inconceivable.

The Gene Keys also states, “Our current generation is the sacrificial generation. Our collective body is purging humanity of its ancient toxins.” It may not be advantageous from an evolutionary point of view for 7 billion humans to exist on the planet. How this process will play out is anybody’s guess, but if Nature indeed knows what she is doing, then those of us who are awakening to a greater reality may be the imaginal cells of the caterpillar building the rudiments of a new human and a new planet.